


The Hidden Guide

by Bythia



Series: Hidden [1]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Sentinels and Guides Are Known, Bad Albus Dumbledore, Book 4: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-18
Updated: 2020-10-19
Packaged: 2021-03-09 00:29:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 20,499
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27085621
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bythia/pseuds/Bythia
Summary: Neville awoke as a Guide when he was just five years old, and his grandmother sequestered him away, although it meant everyone thought of him as not much more than a squib. When he came to Hogwarts, he recognized his Sentinel in fellow Gryffindor Harry Potter, but he was delegated to the sidelines while Harry found himself in one dangerous situation after another.Neville has to race against time and every single person in magical Britain to protect his Sentinel when Harry comes back from the last task of the Triwizard Tournament and has awoken as a Sentinel, because to be a Sentinel or a Guide in Britain is a death sentence, and not even being the Boy-who-lived would save Harry should he be discovered.
Relationships: Neville Longbottom/Harry Potter
Series: Hidden [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1976827
Comments: 10
Kudos: 170
Collections: Rough Trade Presents: The Year of the Sentinel - 2020





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> So, I wanted to have the second part of this series finished before putting up this part, but somehow it is not happening. Two-thirds of the first draft for the second part is done, but I'm thoroughly distracted at the moment. So, I'm putting up this part now and hope I'll be able to get back to the second part sometime this year.
> 
> This was my second story for the July RT challenge of this year and it was work! But I'm proud what I got out of it and I look forward to writing the rest of the series.
> 
>  **Disclaimer:** I don't own any of the characters or anything of this world. I just borrowed them to play a little bit, and I don't make money with the stories I borrowed them for. But the words are mine, so please don't copy them to use them as your own.
> 
> Have fun,  
> Bythia

Neville watched with worry and discomfort how one champion after another was vanishing into the labyrinth. After the hedge had closed behind Fleur Delacour there rose five big canvases out of the hedge. One was displaying the ever-changing labyrinth from above, with markings for each of the champions and one for the cup in the centre. The others were showing a champion each, so the spectators could follow their progress individually.

Neville's eyes were transfixed on the one displaying Harry. Never before had he been able to witness Harry’s adventures like in this year and while he had initially thought it would make his suffering easier, he had already learned with the dragon how much he had been mistaken. He wished he could be by Harry’s side, to give him support and courage and companionship.

But once again he was delegated to the sidelines, forced to just watch and unable to help.

He was momentarily distracted from the moving picture of Harry when unrest broke out around him and the other students were shouting in outrage and pointing at the canvases displaying Delacour and Krum. The Bulgarian champion had attacked the Veela, his eyes empty and distant. But no one beside Neville seemed to notice that little detail, that so clearly spoke of the Imperius.

He had never understood why no one had protested some of the Death Eaters claiming the influence of that curse to escape Azkaban. Especially after he had seen the blatant change in each of his classmates when Moody had used the curse on each of them during the Defence lessons. But maybe it actually was something only few could see and none of them had dared to speak up for the same reason Neville would not point it out. It was not a good idea to draw that kind of attention to yourself if you wanted to stay alive.

Neville followed Krum’s movements for a few seconds, frowning and thoughtful. Krum had taken out Delacour, but someone was controlling him. Probably the same person who had gotten Harry into the tournament. The whole year Neville had tried to find a reason why someone had done that without much success. He fidgeted on his place, a dark foreboding building inside him, but he could do nothing but wait and hope that Harry’s luck would hold.

He kept his eyes fixed on Harry, even as Krum attacked Cedric, and with the Cruciatus at that. It was very telling that Krum started to flee instead of attacking Harry who was in a bad situation to defend himself during his fight with the hedge to reach them. But again, no one seemed to notice it, booing out Krum and cheering for Harry when his Stupor let the older champion dropdown.

Cedric and Harry separated, only to meet again right in front of the cup.

Neville held his breath, internally pleading with Harry to just let Cedric win while they debated about who would take the cup. He could so clearly see now that it had to be a trap. He closed his eyes when both Cedric and Harry grabbed for the cup and vanished but did not appear on the stage where all eyes had gone to.

For half a minute there lay deafening silence over the whole court while everyone waited for something to happen. But Neville felt that Harry was not in Hogwarts any more, or anywhere near it.

Ludo Bagman clearing his throat eventually broke the silence. “Yes, alright. … It does seem as if our recording spells at the other location have failed.”

He laughed nervously. “Of course we need to have _one_ winner of our grand tournament and we have made preparations for the event that two champions would forget that. So … Mr. Diggory and Mr. Potter are currently facing another challenge to determine who our winner will be! We _should_ see their progress here but … Of course, we are working on solving the problem as fast as possible so we will all be able to witness the final decision. Please stay all in your seats and stay patient.”

Neville wondered if anyone was actually believing that nonsense while students all around him began muttering. The judges and other officials down by the stage had started a heated discussion and Neville wished he could hear what they were saying. Did they even have an idea what had happened or were they entirely in the dark?

While they waited, an unconscious Fleur Delacour was brought to the stage by Hagrid, and Neville watched in disgust how Madam Pomfrey was waving her wand over the young woman right there as if she did not deserve any privacy about her medical care. It did serve to distract the spectators for a few minutes, and again when Moody brought Krum. His questioning and the subsequent discussion about the use of an unforgivable curse – which ended in Krum being pardoned on the spot by Minister Fudge – served as another distraction.

Nearly an hour had gone by when the spectators started to lose their patience and the judges could no longer diffuse the fact that even they were not sure what had happened. They were saved from having to find further explanations when suddenly Harry and Cedric appeared on the stage, Harry sprawled over the older boy and crying while Cedric was eerie unmoving.

Everyone around him sprang up, cheering even so they were still not sure if Harry or Cedric had won. Only Neville stayed seated, desperately fighting against his shock and utter fear. He could feel Harry in a way he had never been able to before. And that could just mean that Harry had awoken as a Sentinel.

Neville himself had awoken as a Guide long before he had come to Hogwarts. It was the reason why his grandmother had kept him out of sight from the public until it had been time for him to start his first year, not bothering that it had stirred up rumours about him being a squib. It had actually come in handy when he had started school and used his father's wand to mask his abilities, and everyone had expected him to perform poorly. No one looked twice at him, thinking him barely a wizard at all.

If Augusta Longbottom had gotten her will, Neville would not have gone to Hogwarts at all. He could understand her reasons. The first thing he had learned after he had awoken was the wording of the law that would see him executed if it was ever discovered that he was a Guide. He had also learned that it was all over the world a unique law only applicable in Great Britain, that they would be safe if they left the country.

Nonetheless, Neville had insisted to stay here. He knew without a doubt that his Sentinel was somewhere in this country, was fairly sure that he had already met them when he had been younger and unable to remember it. He had been willing to take the risk so he could find his Sentinel, who was as much at risk as he was.

And he had been proven right when he had recognized his Sentinel in Harry on the very first day of school right after the sorting when he had sat on the other side of the table during the feast. It had been a nightmare from the very start and thrown over all of the plans Neville had made with his grandmother. Harry was not able to keep a low profile, and they were not able to invite him over for the holidays to talk with him about the issue, to warn him.

For a long time, Neville had not even been able to get close to Harry, because Ron was there nearly all the time, jealously guarding his place has Harry’s best (and only) friend. It had gotten easier after Hermione had been included in that friendship, but it was still rare to get a quiet moment with Harry. They had built a solid friendship in the last four years, even so, everyone else would scoff about the notion because they had managed to keep it quiet.

Nonetheless, Harry knew nothing about what had happened to him, and if he started to ask the wrong kind of questions that could mean his death. Not even being the Boy-who-lived would safe him. The propaganda in Great Britain about Sentinels and Guides was dark and condemning and Harry was regarded by many with suspicion anyway.

Neville was thrown out of his musing when the cheering subsided and horrified whispers started to flow through the students. He shuddered when he heard that Cedric seemed to be dead, and immediately the questions started if Harry had killed him to get to the price. It was the same every year and so ugly. It was no wonder there kept rising one Dark Lord after another in this country with how cruel and dark most everyone here was.

The Gryffindor tried to leave the ranks without much success. No one was interested in leaving, everyone wanted to know what had happened and the crowd started to demand answers while Harry was led away by Moody. Neville tried to keep an eye on them, not trusting the old Auror one bit. Even before he had started to demonstrate the Unforgivables in class Neville had not thought a lot about him and after that incident, he had taken great care to never be alone with the man.

He could feel jumbled and unclear emotions from Harry through the rest of the evening, and more than once he wished he could open up his shields to reach for Harry and find out what was happening. But that would most likely lead to his discovery and so he could not risk it.

There was no real explanation given other than Cedric had died during the last part of the tournament before the students were ushered into the castle, and the adults that had come to bear witness to the last task were asked to leave the school. Neville followed Ron, Hermione, and Mrs. Weasley to the infirmary but was sent away at the door as Harry was only allowed a small number of visitors and Neville was not really his friend after all.

Neville had never before been so frustrated by the fact that they had so successfully disguised their friendship. Instead of complaining, he went straight back to the dorm to get a hold of Harry’s invisibility cloak while everyone else was still out. He had permission from Harry to take it whenever he needed it and if there had ever been a need it was now. He would wait until everyone else was asleep and sneak to his friend then.

But to wait was hard. Harry was vulnerable and exposed and Neville still had no clear picture of what had actually happened. When Ron and Hermione came back to the common room he got a few glimpses of information about someone posing as Moody for most if not the whole year, about Harry meeting Voldemort in some cemetery, and Voldemort being resurrected through a ritual for which Harry had been needed. Barely anyone in the common room was believing them because Fudge had already declared that Harry was lying to cover up his misgivings before they had left the Quidditch pitch.

It was more early in the morning than late at night when Neville dared to leave his dorm and the Gryffindor tower hidden under Harry’s cloak. Harry was the only one in the infirmary, tossing from one side to the other in a fitful sleep. That made Neville feeling better about waking him up, as it would end whatever nightmare was plaguing his Sentinel.

“Nev?” Harry was blinking confused.

“They wouldn’t let me visit earlier,” Neville said shrugging. “So I had to borrow your cloak.”

Harry smiled sleepily. “You didn’t have to…”

“Ah, but I do!” Neville interrupted him. “You are my friend. And I’m very worried about you. You were gone for a whole hour, and Ron and Hermione said something about Voldemort.”

Harry sighed and without further prompting began to tell him what had happened after he and Cedric had taken the cup, thinking they would share the win. Neville was horrified by all of it, but mostly by the ritual and mock duel Voldemort had tried to construct. His horror was chased away by anger when Harry told him about the false Moody and how Fudge had basically killed the imposter without even questioning him.

“The Minister doesn’t believe me,” Harry ended quietly.

Neville shook his head. “More likely he doesn’t want to believe you because it will damage his image and his position when it will become known that You-know-who is back and that the rat helped him.”

“Do his reasons matter?” Harry asked frowning.

“Probably not.” Neville sighed and took Harry’s hand in his without thinking about it. “He will be a problem either way. But we knew that already since last year when he refused to listen to you about Snuffles.”

Harry smiled. “He was here earlier. Not long, but it was good to see him. Just … Dumbledore sent him away on some mission. I would have liked to see him again before I have to go back.”

“Do you remember how we talked about you not going back there but spending the summer with me?” That had been two years ago and Neville had often wished Harry had followed his invitation. “Nobody is checking up on you there anyway, right?”

“But … what about the blood protection? I can’t … my mother gave that to me. I can’t … dishonour it.”

Neville frowned and looked down at Harry’s arm clad in bandages. “It won’t work any more. You said the rat took your blood for the ritual. It’s in him now, any blood wards will recognize him as family.”

Harry shuddered violently. “No! That can’t be…”

“I’m sorry.”

“There is nothing for you to be sorry for!” Harry frowned and Neville could literally see him thinking. “But how would I get to you? I don’t think the headmaster would let it go if I just went with you. He already insisted that I go back until after my birthday.”

Neville bit on his lip and hesitated for a long moment before he opened the chain of the medallion he had worn around his neck since he had been five years old. “This will bring you into my room upon activation. I really want to show you my home.”

Harry frowned. “Is that a po…”

“Yes,” Neville interrupted hurriedly. He was cautious about certain words being spoken because he knew there were listening charms all over the castle which were activated by certain words or phrases, but he had no idea what they were. He knew Harry thought him paranoid, but he had never not indulged him.

Harry hesitated for a moment before he took the medallion, but Neville had to help him fasten the chain because Harry could barely use the hand of his injured arm. “How is it activated? And what do I say if someone asks about it?”

“Have you ever seen me wear it?” Neville asked chuckling. “It’s invisible for anyone but the wearer. And it’s the given name of my mother, then of grandmother and my father and my own name at the end.”

Harry looked at him warily. “Why were you wearing it?”

“In case I ever need to get out of a dangerous situation. But it’s only a week until I’m home, I’ll survive until then without it.” And it contained protective magic that had helped him, in the beginning, to contain his abilities as a Guide and that would now hopefully help level out Harry’s senses. He could do without it for a weak easily. “I expect you to take not to much time to give it back to me!”

Harry worried his lip. “Can it take two people? It’s just … Snuffles wants to wait for me on the evening of the train ride and I…”

“No problem.” Neville nodded, even so he was pretty sure his grandmother would not so easily be convinced to harbour a fugitive, but that was something for him to worry about later. “How are you feeling?”

Harry shrugged. “My head hurts and earlier even the candles were too bright. The cut on my arm still burns and half the time my ears are ringing. I thought it would help to sleep, but … there were only nightmares.”

“You were tortured with the Cruciatus,” Neville reminded quietly. “It will take a while for those things to stop.”

It was a convenient excuse and only half the truth, but hopefully, it would stop Harry from asking questions about it, so he would not draw attention to his senses. Neville hated it to lead his friend around in such a way, but he would not be able to talk about the real reasons until they were safely in his home.

Harry screwed up his face. “Madam Pomfrey said the same.”

“Did she already tell you how long she would hold you captive?”

“She’ll tell me in the morning.” Harry huffed. “I’m not even sure if I want to get out of here. What are the others saying about what happened?”

Neville sighed deeply. “You won’t like it.”

“ _That_ I knew already!”

“Fudge implied that you killed Cedric and a lot of students are believing him.”

“Great.” Harry closed his eyes. “He cancelled the award ceremony, that will just fuel the speculations.”

“Maybe the teachers will say something.” It was a slim hope, Neville knew that. But the situation was hardly comparable to the last few years.

Harry shrugged. “Have they ever said anything to kill the speculations about me? - There are still some students who think I was responsible for all the shit two years ago because no one explained to them what really happened!”

~*~*~*~*~*~

Never before had one week of school been as long as this one. Harry got to that conclusion a day after the last task when he was released from the infirmary in the evening and the whole Great Hall fell silent as he entered. Everyone was staring at him with varying degrees of resentment, hatred or fear.

All eyes were following him as he went down the Gryffindor table and set down between his friends, and as expected the teachers said nothing. But if Harry had learned one thing in the last four years it was to ignore the stares and to pretend it was not bothering him.

Harry sat down between Hermione and Ron and started to talk with Neville and Hermione (not Ron, as he was to busy eating, the only person in the hall to not have stopped with it), pretending to not notice the stares of everyone else. It took a few minutes, but in the end, it worked and the other students began to whisper with each other and go back to their meal. Yet Harry knew that the only thing everyone was talking about was the third task and their speculations about the events at the end, and it made his skin crawl.

Over the next couple of days, Harry told his story whenever he was asked and sometimes even when he was not asked. It did help only marginally, as most people called him a liar right to his face, repeating Minister Fudge's words over and over again. And still, the teachers said nothing and the Daily Prophet published surprisingly sparse articles about the last task.

The worst was the time he had to spend in his own house. Seamus and Dean were openly distrustful of him, complaining more than once about having to sleep in the same room as him. They did it when he should not have been able to hear it, but that did not help against his own discomfort about sleeping in the same room as them. In the common room were only a few people who stood up to him, mainly the Quidditch team and chief among them the Weasley twins.

That did lead to Harry finally deciding what he wanted to do with the winnings of the tournament after the twins told him how Bagman had betrayed them out of their winnings of the Quidditch bet in the last summer. He was happy to give them the gold so they could start their business, maybe so it could bring something good into the world.

It did lead to another dispute with Ron, which Harry was getting really tired of. Somehow Ron believed that if Harry had to give away his winnings, he should have given it to him as his best friend. Harry did not remind him that the twins were two of very few students in the whole school who had stood beside him the whole year and that Ron decidedly was not part of this group.

Most of his time Harry spend hiding somewhere in the castle or the grounds and more often than not Neville found him there, sitting with him without asking anything of him. Harry was not especially interested in any kind of conversation and Neville seemed to understand that, having the summer homework with him to work on and just keeping him company.

Besides all this trouble with nearly everyone in the castle, Harry was only slowly getting better. The cut on his arm and any other injuries he had sustained in the labyrinth and during his fight with Voldemort were nearly completely healed when he had left the infirmary and had vanished the next morning (thank Merlin for magical healing!). But his headache and nausea and his unreliable senses kept being a problem and he could not quite believe that it had anything to do with the Cruciatus as Madam Pomfrey and Neville had assured him.

It was not the first time his senses were out of control. The first time he had had to deal with hearing or seeing things he should not, or not hearing or seeing at all, while his skin was raw and everything was hurting much more than it should, or not hurting at all, had been in the summer after first year. It had taken him a long time to notice that smell and taste were similarly affected because most of the first month he had not gotten the stench of burning flesh out of his mouth and nose.

Harry had still no idea what that was all about. He could not have asked his aunt or uncle about it because he really did not need another thing making him different to them and fuelling their hatred of him. And he had not been able to ask anyone in the magical world because he had not had any contact with his friends or anyone else until Dobby had shown up.

It had taken a lot of concentration, but in the end, he had gotten it all under control. When Ron and the twins had rescued him from the Dursleys, Harry had not thought much about those problems at the beginning of the summer. He had not thought about it for a very long time until it had become very useful to be able to pinpoint only with his hearing where the basilisk was during the fight against it. But until then he had learned what a bad idea it was to reveal unique abilities to the wizarding public, and so he had kept quiet about it and said it had been pure dumb luck when he had escaped the beast long enough for Fawkes to pick out its eyes and stabbed the snake in the right moment and the right place to kill it.

Even so Harry had learned during that fight against the snake that it could be useful to be able to decide how detailed he wanted to see his surroundings or how much he wanted to hear, he had kept it all locked away. Neither did he want to lose control of it as it had happened after first year, nor did he want to have another thing that let him stand out. So he had not spoken about it to anyone and not used it, except during the second task when he just had not seen enough in the water and had adjusted his sight without even thinking about it.

Maybe it actually was the torture he had endured under Voldemorts wand that made it so hard to control his senses now. Maybe these abilities were even normal for magicians, but no one talked about it for unknown reasons which would be just another reason for Harry not to talk about it. He would definitely not want to break such a taboo.

Harry knew he needed to get it back under control, but there seemed to be no way to do that here in Hogwarts. Being near Neville helped and let Harry have hope to get it back under control as soon as the summer started. And until then he just had to endure.

Sometimes it felt like his senses, especially his hearing, were actively searching for the vilest things spoken about him and for threats made against him and those who stood up for him. He heard a lot of things he clearly was not intended to hear in the week after Voldemort’s resurrection. And not only from the students but from the teachers, too.

So he learned that Dumbledore had reinstated a group called the Order of the Phoenix in reaction to the events at the end of the last task, but that he did not want to make any kind of official statement as long as Fudge had not made one first and that included statements inside the school. That was what he had told those teachers he had talked to about the Order, but to the real Moody he had also said, that the isolation Harry was experiencing would be good for him and his destiny, whatever that was.

Moreover, Harry learned, that Ron was still resentful for the _chance_ Harry had gotten in participating in the tournament as well as that he had not used it more to further his fame. And he had tried to talk the twins in giving him the gold or at least a part of it, as surely they had to see that Harry had still been very confused when he had given it to them instead of him.

But the most interesting thing he learned, was about the mood of the Slytherins and others who came from known or not so known dark families. Harry had expected them to be euphoric about the return of the Lord of their parents and some of them were, but for most it was the exact opposite. Many of them were wary about going home, especially the older ones and there was a lot of hushed up talk about how one could escape the possibility to have to serve the Dark Lord.

When Harry had agreed to sneak to Neville for the summer, he had not been sure if it was such a good idea. He did want to get away from the Dursleys, and to spent a summer without being cut off from the magical world, and to spent the holidays with his friend. But there were still the wards at Privet Drive which ought to protect him and the Dursleys and which were still in perfect working order Dumbledore had assured him when Harry had asked him about it after Neville's visit in the infirmary. And he had kept thinking about Ron who had bemoaned the fact that Harry could not spend the summer with him and his family.

All he had learned in the days since the last task until they finally could board the train to London had shown him that he should not think so much about what others expected from him, especially Ron and Dumbledore. The first time in his whole life he would spend the summer where he wanted to spend it and with someone who had never asked anything of him. And maybe he could use the time to train his senses, maybe he would even be able to confide in Neville about them.

On the train ride to London, Harry shared a compartment with Neville, Ron and Hermione. They had locked the door so no one would bother them, but more than once in the long hours of the ride Harry wished they had locked out Hermione and Ron, too. They kept bragging about their plans for the holidays like they had done every year on the way to London. But while Harry had not cared much in the past, this year he could not help but resent them. For all they knew, he would be incarcerated with his relatives for most of the summer, but they did not care for his misery.

Harry was relieved when they reached London in the early evening and he could take his leave from them. He felt a little bit bad about it. He had tried really hard in the last months to forgive Ron for turning his back to him after Halloween, or Hermione for not standing fully beside him.

But he just could not reach a point where he could trust either friend again. All Hermione had done was try to mediate between them and while intellectually Harry could recognize and appreciate that, emotionally he was still hurt that she had been angry not only at Ron but at him, too, for the fight between them. He had not been the one in the wrong, he had not turned his back on a friend, and he would have really needed her full and undisputed support at the time.

Ron seemed to expect that Harry would just forget about it, but that would never happen even if someday Harry could find forgiveness for Ron. The last year had shown him things about Ron he had not seen before. Or maybe he had not wanted to see them before, too enamoured with the fact that he had a friend at all. Either way, he could not dismiss them and he had not decided yet how he would or could handle them in the future.

During the drive to Surrey, Harry silently endured Uncle Vernon’s lecture about him keeping quiet and out of sight for the summer. He did deem it unnecessary to inform him that he would not even spend a night in Privet Drive, but promised to keep away as much as possible. He made a show out of bringing his trunk in his room, only to activate the rune that Neville had carved in it and that shrunk it down. It would only work one time, but that was enough.

Harry had suggested to shrunk his trunk down in Hogwarts and put it in Neville’s, but his friend had argued that it would be too suspicious if Harry left the school without his trunk. So he had given Harry a backpack and had shown him how to use the rune. Harry had briefly wondered how his friend knew about such a thing as he had not taken Ancient Runes as an elective, but decided to ask later about it.

And so Harry left the house of his relatives only minutes after he and Uncle Vernon had reached it without the Dursleys asking where he was going. He was sure they would not even register that he had not come back for a couple of days and even then they would probably not care about it.

He found Sirius by the playground, hiding in the bush Harry had described him and in his animagus form. After checking that no one was there watching him, Harry climbed over the bushes (he may be the smallest boy of his class, but even he was now too big to crawl through the twigs as he had done so often before Hogwarts) and sat down in the small but empty place between a few of the bushes. He knew from experience that it was a good hiding place, especially now that it was nearly dark.

Sirius crawled out of the bush and brushed his head against Harry’s chest before he changed back. “How are you feeling, pup?”

Harry shrugged and bit down on his lip. “I don’t know. - Do you trust Dumbledore, Siri? I mean, really really trust him?”

Sirius hesitated and that was answer enough. “I can’t say that I trust anyone lightly these days.”

“Are you trusting me?” Harry asked frowning.

“That’s another matter altogether.” Sirius smiled warmly. “Shortly after you were born I swore to your parents and to you by my magic and my life to protect you. There is nothing I wouldn’t do for you.” He brushed his fingers softly through Harry’s hair. “I thought you safe with Hagrid and Dumbledore for a few hours, when I left you with him. I’ll never be able to fully trust him again because I wasn’t able to trust him with your safety.”

“But you are following his orders.”

Sirius shrugged. “I’m not in a good position, being still a fugitive. And he is the only one doing anything against You-know-who. And we need to stand up against him before he gets his full power back. - What has that brought on?”

“I heard him tell Moody, the real Moody, that it was better for me to be kept isolated from the other students.” Harry huffed. “They were all shunning me because they believed I had killed Cedric to win.”

Sirius furrowed his brows. “And the teachers weren’t saying anything?”

Harry shrugged. “Of course not. They never do. - I have a plan for this summer, but you can’t tell Dumbledore anything!”

“What plan?” Sirius asked warily.

“You won’t tell him?”

“I’ll never reveal your secrets to anyone,” Sirius assured. “But if I think your plan is dangerous, I can’t promise to not interfere.”

Harry nodded. “That’s fair, I think. - Neville asked me to spent the summer with him. He gave me a portkey so I could go there as soon as everyone thought I had gone to the Dursleys. Because Dumbledore is insisting I stay with them, even though neither of us wants it!”

“Neville Longbottom? Do you trust him?” Sirius asked.

“He is the only one that has in four years never ever turned his back on me!” Harry said with conviction. “Or made fun of me. Or spoken badly about me. - And he said you could come with me.”

Sirius raised a brow. “And what does Augusta Longbottom say to that?”

Harry shrugged. “Neville said to not worry about it. I think she is not as bad as everyone believes, you know? She is just paranoid because of what happened to Neville’s parents. And with all the things happening at school every year she is probably right.”

“It is rather suspicious that all of that started to happen as soon as you were in Hogwarts,” Sirius agreed. “And what do you plan to do while staying with Neville?”

“To enjoy my holidays for once!” Harry answered decidedly. “And to learn about the magical world. Ron never felt like answering my questions, he rather wanted to play or roam around. And I have a lot of questions!”

“And you never asked Neville before?”

Harry huffed. “We didn’t get to spend a lot of time undisturbed. Neville once told me that there were listening charms all over the castle and whenever someone started a discussion about things the teachers or maybe only the headmaster didn’t want to be discussed they would activate and warn someone. I really thought he had gotten his paranoia from his grandmother, but now…”

Sirius chuckled. “That does seem paranoid, but he isn’t wrong about monitoring charms in certain places. But they should not be used to spy on the students.”

“What are they used for?”

“To protect the students, of course. All over the grounds, but especially by the Quidditch pitch and the lake are wards monitoring for any injuries. There are a lot of little spaces monitored for…” Sirius cocked his head and paused. “You are old enough, I think.”

Harry screwed up his face. “Yeah, no need to talk about that!”

“Has someone already given you the sex-talk?” Sirius asked earnestly.

Harry shrugged. “Uncle Vernon, I guess. He told me what to do to not get a girl pregnant if I had to succumb to _‘those nasty urges’_. I had already listened in to his talk with Dudley and that was much more thorough, but I don’t think Uncle Vernon had actually any good advice about it.”

Sirius raised his brows. “And why is that?”

“He was only talking about how Dudley would _‘get his’_ , but it should be a good time for both, right?”

“Definitely.” Sirius nodded. “For both, or all three if you want to be adventurous.” He winked at Harry and laughed. “I think we should have a more in-depth talk about this at a later point. I know it’s not the most comfortable thing for you to talk about, but open and honest communication is very important and it will be a good exercise for that.”

“If you say so,” Harry muttered uncomfortably.

“But to get back to Neville’s suspicion. There should be no active monitoring of any student, but I can’t say I would put it past Dumbledore to make an expectation for you. I’m not comfortable with the things he is asking me to not tell you or to tell you in a certain way. And I have a feeling he is trying to keep us separated as much as possible. I just don’t know why. He wouldn’t have approved of me coming here today if I had asked.”

“Has he done anything to help you gain your freedom in the last year?”, Harry asked. “I mean, he has influence in the ministry, doesn’t he?”

Sirius shook his head. “He told me the situation was too strained at the moment to bring up my non-existent trial.”

Harry huffed. “Sounds like a load of bullshit. Maybe Neville’s grandma can help you? Neville said she knows lots about politics and is somehow involved in it all.”

Sirius smiled, but he did not look convinced at all. “We’ll see, pup.”

“So.” Harry eyed his godfather sceptically. “Are you coming with me or do I need to stun and kidnap you? Neville said to not let him wait too long.”

Sirius laughed. “You don’t need to kidnap me. But I think it is better if I come as Snuffles.” And without waiting for a reply he changed his form again.

Harry grinned and put his arms around the big dog, burying his face in the dark hair before muttering the activation code. He really hated portkeys, especially after last week, but to not have to spend the summer with the Dursleys was worth the whole ordeal.

~*~*~*~*~*~

As was usual, Neville and his grandmother exchanged no words while they were still at the train station. They had taken great care in cultivating a certain picture of their relationship for the public, one that spoke of distance and coldness, of disappointment and grief on his grandmother part, and a desperate wish for her approval on his part. All so no one would wonder about Neville using his father wand and his bad performance in every magical endeavour.

The biggest problem in hiding what he was, was the distinct fabric of his magic. All Sentinel and Guides had a very deep connection to wild magic, something that showed in every magic they performed. Everyone with mage sight could learn to see this connection, but it was exhausting, especially in an environment like Hogwarts with hundred of students performing massive amounts of magic on any given day. If there was someone at Hogwarts searching for such a connection to wild magic among the students, that person would have to be very selective and as such would probably not look in the direction of a student who was so clearly failing in even reaching the most basic magical goals.

Augusta pulled Neville into her arms as soon as they had reached the security of their own property. He returned the hug as fiercely, glad to be safe, glad to be able to relax for the first time in months. Hogwarts, in general, was exhausting for him and the last week had put a whole new dimension to it.

“Can you explain to me why your protection charm is currently located just outside of London?” Augusta asked without letting go of him.

Neville shrugged. “I gave it to Harry after the last task. He needed to go to his relatives first, but he’ll come here later.” He hesitated. “And he’ll bring a guest.”

Augusta took a step back and looked at him with raised eyebrows. “Why did you give your portkey for that? We could have gone to his home to bring him here. Why now when he declined the last two summers? Who is he bringing with him and why?”

Neville blew out a breath. “Harry came online during the third task. I gave him the medallion in the hope it could help stabilise his senses and it did seem to work in the last few days. I didn’t know … I could tell him nothing and I couldn’t do anything without risking exposing us both. I … It was the only thing I could do to help him!”

“I understand.” Augusta was smiling warmly, but Neville suddenly felt overcome by panic.

He shook his head. “No, you don’t! I lied to Harry, basically for the whole time he has known me! He’ll hate me for it! He hates being lied to, or not being told everything! And now I even put him under magic without asking his permission! He’ll…”

“Neville, stop.” His grandmother gently enclosed his face with her hands and forced him to look at her. “You did nothing wrong and Harry will understand. You protected him, and that is the important part. And I’m sure you have not outright lied to him. You kept information to yourself because you couldn’t have talked about them inside of Hogwarts!”

“That’s not really better,” Neville muttered. “It’s the same thing that Dumbledore does to him! He still hasn’t told Harry why Voldemort attacked his parents and is so interested in killing him!”

“But Dumbledore does it for his own gain, to further his own plans. You have done it to protect both of you.”

Neville huffed. “I’m sure Dumbledore would argue that he is protecting Harry, too!”

Augusta shook her head. “If that were the case, the last four years would have taken another turn. And I’m positive, that Harry knows that, too. - You have done everything to be a good friend for him. And as soon as he understands the danger you put yourself into, he will forget every hurt feeling about you not telling him everything because he will probably get quite angry that you put yourself into this position.”

Neville frowned. “Why?”

Augusta laughed lightly. “Oh, I knew you hadn’t thought about that side of things. He is your Sentinel, lad. His first goal in everything he’ll do will be to protect you. That’s his nature. He won’t be happy that you put yourself in danger for four years because of him.”

“He’ll just have to live with it!”, Neville stated shrugging. And as much danger as Harry was prone to attract, he would have to learn to accept Neville's presence at his side in these situations, as Neville would not tolerate having to stand by and watch one more time.

August was still laughing, while she prodded him into the sitting room and to a sofa. “Let’s sit down and tell me what happened during the third task. I have gotten not much information, neither out of the newspaper nor from the gossip in the ministry. All I know is that Cedric Diggory died and there is an investigation undergoing into the circumstances of his death.”

“Really?” Neville snorted. “No one has talked to Harry about it since the night of the last task. One would think he would be the first, any investigators would talk to!”

“And why is that?” Augusta asked.

Neville sighed and took his time not only to outlined the third task in as few words as he could manage but the whole year. He ended with, “It had been nearly an hour when Harry and Cedric came back. Cedric was dead, but no one was believing Harry when he told them that the cup had been a portkey that had taken them to Voldemort. Fudge basically said that Harry was lying to cover up for killing Cedric.”

He closed the eyes and took a deep breath. “Harry was awake when he came back. I haven’t asked for details yet of what happened because I don’t want to have this discussion with him more than once. And there are questions I couldn’t have asked at Hogwarts.”

“That implies that the investigation I heard about is aimed against Harry.”

Neville nodded. “I think Fudge fears the consequences if anyone started to listen to Harry. Eventually, Harry would start to talk about last year and Sirius, and he can’t have that.”

He had spent the whole week thinking about Fudge's motives because he may not be the savviest politician who had ever existed, but he had gotten into his position without the help of Dumbledore or Malfoy or anyone else he was associating with nowadays. He had to know that it would come back to bite him to just ignore Harry’s claim if there was even a kernel of truth in it.

So, either Fudge was already on Voldemorts payroll or even a Death Eater in the making, or there was another reason to discredit Harry. Neville had not had to think long about another reason. Fudges carrier would be over if it came ever to light that he had given a kiss-on-sight-order for a man, who had never had a trial. And it had been a year in which Fudge could have easily looked up the archive discretely to get an idea if Harry had actually been telling the truth at the end of third year.

Augusta eyed him with a frown. “What are you talking about?”

Neville frowned right back. “I told you about it, didn’t I? How Sirius had never a trial and is, in fact, innocent and Peter Pettigrew was the one who betrayed the Potters and killed all those muggles?”

“You did not tell me anything about such a thing! Are you talking about Sirius Black?”

“I’m sure I must have!” Neville insisted. “I was so furious that Dumbledore did nothing and that Fudge just ignored anything Harry had to say! Sirius and Harry had both been nearly killed because of all the Dementors at school!”

Augusta shook her head. “You haven’t told me a lot about your third year.” She pursed her lips. “But then, I didn’t ask a lot last summer about your school year. I thought it had been a quiet year inside of Hogwarts, with the search for Black and all that ruckus being outside of school.”

Neville snorted. “Expect that both Sirius and the Dementors were all in Hogwarts most of the year!”

“There were sightings reported all over the country, but never in a fifty-mile radius of Hogwarts.” Augusta looked at him with raised eyebrows. “You are addressing a wanted criminal awfully familiar.”

“Because he is no criminal!” Neville insisted. “He would have never survived the betrayal of the Potters! And Pettigrew lives! He confessed to all of it. But he could flee.”

“Have you spoken personally with Black?” Augusta asked.

Neville shook his head. “Harry told me what had happened afterwards. Ron and Hermione were with him as usual.”

“So you can’t be sure what really happened.”

“Harry wouldn’t lie to me! He couldn’t, because I would know it!” Neville protested.

“True. But he could have been lied to,” Augusta cautioned. “And if his home life is as bad as you suspect it to be, he would probably believe anything that gave him even a little hope to get out of there permanently.”

Neville shook his head. “Ron was so scared afterwards, I think he actually saw Pettigrew change into Scrabbers. Or the other way around, who knows.”

Augusta opened her mouth, but then she paused going pale. “What did you just say?”

“Pettigrew is a rat animagus. He hid with the Weasleys as their pet rat for most of the time since his reported death. He was Ron’s rat.”

“You once told me Ron was keeping his rat in his bed at night. Are you telling me there was a grown man living in your dorm and sleeping in the same bed as one of your classmates for three years?”

Neville had never seen his grandmother so shocked and furious at the same time and he did not quite understand what brought on such a strong reaction. “Yeah. Before that, he was Percy’s rat and I’m pretty sure he brought him to Hogwarts, too. Sirius recognized him on the picture of the Weasleys in the Daily Prophet two years ago. He broke out of Azkaban and went after him when he realised that Pettigrew was basically living in the same room as Harry.”

“Can’t fault him for that,” Augusta muttered darkly.

Neville frowned. “Are you alright?”

“No, I’m definitely not alright with any of this!” Augusta took a deep, calming breath. “But we will discuss at a later time my main concern about this situation. And we’ll include Harry in this discussion. - I assume, he will come today?”

Neville nodded. “As soon as he has found Sirius. Apparently, Sirius wanted to wait for him near his relative's house, so they could see each other. He had hoped that Sirius would come with him.”

Augusta raised her brows. “So, you just invited a fugitive into our home?”

“He is Harry’s godfather!” Neville reminded. “And never was convicted!”

“As far as you know.” Augusta sighed. “I’ll deal with it as soon as they are here. You understand that I have to make sure that he is no threat to any of us, yes?”

Neville nodded. “I guess.”

“I have another, more pressing concern. You said that you had told me about your third year, but you did not.”

“I really thought I had.” Neville frowned, startled. “But … I can’t actually remember when or what we talked about. But I was convinced I had told you about it!”

“I would like to check something,” Augusta said, taking out her wand. “Please hold still for a moment.”

Neville did as instructed, disgruntled that his grandmother was casting silently so that he did not even know what she was doing. The crease between her brows kept growing in the minutes she was casting on him and Neville started to get really concerned.

“We should have put something on your medallion to block compulsions!” Augusta shook her head, impatience written all over her body language. “I should have put a ward on it to protect you from any kind of magic with a possible ill intent, as I wanted to!”

“But then it would have been discovered really quick!” Neville reminded. They had had a long discussion about it, or more like it, Augusta had had a discussion with herself and Neville had listened to it for almost the whole year before he had gone to Hogwarts. “And that would have destroyed your picture of the distant, disappointed, uncaring grandmother.”

Augusta huffed. “Someday I will find a way to put Dumbledore in his place! Hard!”

“So, he put a compulsion on me?” Neville asked.

Augusta took a deep breath. “Yes. Probably on all students. One that wears off in a few weeks but leaves behind something like an echo. I have found three of those echoes in your magic and I would bet it was one for each year.”

Neville frowned. “But not this year?”

“Everyone knows about the tournament, it would be odd if the students wouldn’t talk about it at home. But barely anyone knows about the things that happened in your first or second year and obviously your third year, too.” Augusta huffed. “Do you remember how we agreed that I would make no waves about the petrified students until others started to make waves? I was really disgruntled that there was no one starting to make waves about it!”

“If the students weren’t talking about what had happened, no one would have known to make waves,” Neville concluded. “But I had told you about the things that had happened!”

“Because I had asked extensively,” Augusta reminded. “After first year I asked a lot about Harry because he is your Sentinel. And he was part of all of it. And second year I had heard a rumour from the Board of Governors of Hogwarts, but only because I’m still closely acquainted with a few of them, even so I haven’t been on the board for more than a decade. Last year I somehow saw no reason to question you as extensively.”

She shook her head. “It was very subtle compulsions, easily overcome if you were for example asked the right questions. Anything more would have been to easily discovered. And the goal seems to be that there are no questions asked about what is happening in this school. If it were discovered that students are cursed, there would be a lot of questions.”

Neville pursed his lips. “So, next year you’ll know to check me right away.”

Augusta raised her brows. “I’m not sure if it is a good idea for you and Harry to go back there at all!”

“Harry loves Hogwarts!” Neville protested.

“That may be so, but he will learn this summer of the threat it poses for both of you.” Augusta sighed but showed a small smile. “I don’t think he will tole…”

She was interrupted by the alarm of their wards, and Neville jumped from the sofa excitedly. “That has to be Harry!” The portkey he had given Harry was the only reason the wards had let him inside, but as his magical signature was still not part of the ward structure the alarm sounded nonetheless.

Augusta huffed. “And he indeed brought a guest. We should not let them wait.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Keira Marcos has totally formed my head cannon when it comes to Gringotts and the race that is operating it. She introduced the term 'dverger' for them and devolped the concpet where they are descendants from the dwarfs of LotR. 'Goblin' is a racial slur against them, but that does not stop most of everyone in Grait Britain to use it.

Harry hid his face in Sirius’ pelt for a long time after the feeling of being on a roller coaster had vanished. Even so, he had never been in a roller coaster, he was sure that it was pretty much the same as taking a portkey, except with a portkey one was not secured in a seat but thrown through an unknown space without any safety in place.

He felt nauseous and dizzy after the landing. If it were not for Sirius, Harry was sure he would have ended flat on his back on the floor. He heard a door open and two sets of footsteps enter the room, but he did not feel stable enough to look up.

“Harry?”

That was Neville’s voice and he felt instantly something relax in him. He had not even taken notice of the tension that in retrospect had steadily grown since he had left the train. It had been there every summer, and he had thought it was his longing for Hogwarts, as it had gone away on the train ride back to school.

When he felt Neville’s hands on his shoulders, the dizziness subsided and Harry finally let go of Sirius. “I really, really hate portkeys!”

Neville chuckled quietly. “I can imagine. And it probably won’t get any better, even with more experience.”

Harry frowned. But before he could ask about it, he saw Mrs. Longbottom with her wand aiming at Sirius. “No!” He fought to get to his feet despite his wobbling knees. “Don’t hurt him! He is not…”

Neville held him back. “It’s alright, just let them speak, okay?”

“For us to speak you have to change back, Mr. Black!” Mrs. Longbottom said.

Sirius followed the instruction and put his hands in the air. “I’m here because I was let to believe that Neville had invited me.”

“He did.” Mrs. Longbottom gave a short nod and raised her eyebrows. “Because he believes that you are innocent and were in Azkaban for all those years without a trial.”

“That’s true.” Sirius wetted his lips. “If I had betrayed Lily, James and Harry, I wouldn’t have survived that day. I would have been dead long before them because I swore on my magic and life to protect my godson.”

Harry gasped for air. He had heard that phrase from Sirius more than once, but he had never gotten to the conclusion which Sirius had now so clearly spoken out.

“As for killing Pettigrew and the muggles…” Sirius shrugged. “Pettigrew is alive and he cast the exploding charm, but I have no idea how to prove either without some kind of truth serum or magic.”

“I know how to verify both. You’ll have to consent for me to use magic on you.”

Smiling, Sirius inclined his head in approval. “I’m at your mercy, Ma’am.”

“Indeed, young man.” Mrs. Longbottom nodded shortly.  _ “Nochdaidh e an leanabh aige!” _

Harry had no idea what language Neville’s grandmother had used, but instead of the charm or curse coming out of her wand, mist started to gather around Sirius. It started to whirl around him, forming a thick band around his chest, from which grew a small skein, reaching out to Harry until it encircled his own chest. In the end, it started to pulsate in a bright, white light.

Mrs. Longbottom smiled and her gaze met Harry’s eyes for a quick moment. “That is a representation of the bond created through the oath Mr. Black took as your godfather.” Before Harry could ask anything, she muttered something and the mist vanished. Then she said,  _ “A ‘sealltainn na beatha a chaidh a ghoid!” _

Again there was mist forming all around Sirius, but this time it encompassed all of him, slowly turning into a dark green. In the end, it was so thick, that Harry could see nothing of his godfather any more. And he tried hard to look through it until the rest of the room seemed to vanish. Neville calling his name let him shake his head to clear his view.

Mrs. Longbottom nodded and let the mist vanish. “You have taken lives, Mr. Black, but only those that had first endangered you or someone else.”

“I fought in a war,” Sirius said gravely.

“I want to hear your story from yourself, Mr. Black.” Mrs. Longbottom eyed Harry and Neville. “But that has time until the boys are asleep. You are probably all hungry. And we have to talk about a much graver matter.”

Harry frowned, but decided not to ask what she meant. While he and Sirius followed her and Neville out of the room and through a big house, he asked instead, “What kind of magic was that? I have never heard that language!”

“And you won’t again in this country, at least in the magical part,” Sirius answered. “That was druid magic and the language was Gaelic if I’m not mistaken. Something that is considered quite dark here in England and most of western Europe.”

Mrs. Longbottom huffed. “There were a lot of things labelled dark in the last century in the attempt to enforce the sole use of Latin based magic. It’s utter nonsense. And of course, there is no law against it. How could there be, with the very fabric of the magic of this land being rooted in the ways of the druids!”

“I never heard about that in Hogwarts,” Harry muttered disgruntled.

“There is a lot we don’t learn in Hogwarts.” Neville sighed. “It’s one way to control the mindset of the population, you know? And as there are more and more half bloods and muggle borns every year, who don’t have family teaching them, it’s working quite well for the ministry. There are even purebloods, like the Weasleys, who don’t teach their children of our history and the original magic of our land anymore because they have come out of school dismissing it.”

Harry frowned. “That’s awful!”

“It is,” Mrs. Longbottom agreed. “But sadly, there are too many in power, purebloods mainly, who think it is the responsibility of those children to educate themselves about that which is not taught at Hogwarts. That leaves those who fight for a more complete education in the minority.”

“Right, that is such a sound logic with nothing in the Hogwarts library to educate ourselves with!” Harry huffed.

“We’ll have a lot of time for you to learn whatever you want to learn,” Neville assured. They reached some kind of sitting room and his friend prodded Harry to the sofa, sitting down beside him. “How are you feeling? The portkey seemed to be pretty bad for you.”

“It was!” Harry nodded. “I was much more disoriented than … when the cup brought Cedric and me to the cemetery. I’m not sure about the way back to Hogwarts, that was…” Truth be told, there was a whole part between Cedric’s ghost asking him to take his body back to Hogwarts and the false Moody asking him about Voldemort’s resurrection that he barely remembered.

Neville took a deep breath. “There is something I need to tell you. And I have known it since we met, but … I couldn’t talk about it in Hogwarts. I’m sure that topic would have triggered every single monitoring magic in the whole school.”

Harry frowned confused but kept quiet to not add to his friend's nervousness. He glanced to Sirius and Mrs. Longbottom, who had sat down, too. Sirius looked as confused as he felt himself, but Mrs. Longbottom was absolutely calm.

“Okay, so, there are people in the magical world who have special abilities. I’m one of these people. I’m what’s called a Guide and I have empathic abilities.” Neville frowned but ignored Sirius’ gasp. “I can explain later what that means exactly. I was a Guide since birth, but those abilities awoke when I was five. We come in pairs. To every Guide, there exists a Sentinel. Sentinels have extraordinary senses, and they can learn to decide how much they want to use those senses. Guides and Sentinels can sense their partner, even before the abilities of the other are awoken. I have known you to be my Sentinel since I stood in front of you for the first time.”

Harry looked to Sirius and then back to Neville. “And I assume that is a really bad thing.” He was suddenly very glad to have never asked anyone about his out of control senses.

“If we lived anywhere else than England it wouldn’t be such a bad thing,” Neville muttered.

“Are you sure you are not mistaken?” Sirius asked with a raw voice.

Neville nodded, without taking his eyes from Harry. “When you came back from the third task I knew you had awoken. And I couldn’t even warn you. That was the longest fucking week in my whole life!”

“Language!” Mrs. Longbottom admonished.

“Sorry, Gran.” But still facing Harry, Neville rolled his eyes not looking remorseful at all. “The medallion is not only my emergency portkey, but it is also layered with charms. In the beginning, it helped me contain my magic, and I had hoped it would help you, too, even though the magic of Sentinels and Guides isn’t exactly the same.”

“What is so bad about being a Sentinel or a Guide?” Harry asked.

“There shouldn’t be anything bad about it!” Neville took a deep breath. “But here it’s a death sentence. - Here in England it is law to execute anyone who is discovered to be a Sentinel or Guide. The last execution was something like fifty years ago and I think everyone who has awoken since then managed to get out of the country without being discovered.”

“You sound as if it is only here that we’ll be killed.”

“Yeah.” Neville nodded.

Harry could not even be shocked about it. It was the third year in a row that he had seen the Minister of Magic personally do and order horrific and unjust things. Hagrid’s arrest in second year, the order to kill Sirius, and actually killing Barty Crouch Jr. without so much as asking him about his machinations of the last year. And then there were all the other things that had happened or had been revealed, that everyone had just seemed to shrug of.

There was something very rotten in the magical community of Great Britain. Harry had started to see that at the end of his first year when he had been petted on the head for killing a teacher and sent on his way without anyone asking him how he felt about it. And the impression had only grown in the following years, but he had felt stuck here and despite all the things that had happened, Hogwarts was still better than staying with the Dursleys all year round. At least there he had a chance to learn and to work for a better life.

“Why are you still here?” Harry asked aghast. “Why would you stay here in England if it is so dangerous to you?” There was this burning in his chest, accompanied by the urge to bring Neville to a safe place, to protect his friend. He looked to Neville’s grandmother. “Why would you let him go to Hogwarts under these circumstances?”

Neville smiled and took his hand, something he had already done in the infirmary and that again let spread a deep warmth through Harry. “Because I knew I would find my Sentinel in Hogwarts. And Gran and I had six years to prepare me for the whole charade. I have managed it pretty good to hide in plain sight for the last four years, don’t you think?”

Harry huffed, but he had to agree. He was starting to see that what he had thought of as paranoia was probably warranted for. “With awoken you mean that those special abilities of a Guide or Sentinel are … available to them, right?”

Neville nodded, confusion clearly written all over his face.

“And you somehow felt that I had awoken after the third task, but the first time I lost control over my senses was years ago,” Harry said frowning.

“When?” Nevilles asked with furrowed brows.

Harry shrugged and told them how he had had to fight against his own senses in the summer after first year until he had finally been able to suppress them. And how he had decided to not talk to anyone about it after he had been ostracised for being a parselmouth.

“Why haven’t I felt that when we came back to Hogwarts after that summer?” Neville exhaled sharply. “Oh Merlin, if you had been discovered … I can’t even think about it!”

“You probably didn’t feel it, because you were both in some way repressing your very nature,” Mrs. Longbottom interjected. “And for Harry being discovered as a Sentinel, I think Harry being a parselmouth is what has saved him from it. Dumbledore may have never admitted it, but I’m sure he has trained himself in mage sight. He is powerful enough to learn the basics, even if he has no affinity for it, of which I’m not sure about. But for someone who has not much experience with it the different expressions of wild magic aren’t easy to tell apart.”

Harry wanted to ask what mage sight was, but when his gaze landed on Sirius, he forgot all about his question. “Are you alright, Siri?” His godfather was pale and shaking.

“No.” Sirius shook his head. “How could I? This is … There are already so many things that burden you down, and now this? And I … I’m unable to protect you from any of this! I … I don’t know…”

“The only way to protect our two boys is to leave the country,” Mrs. Longbottom said.

Sirius shook his head. “It’s not that easy. There are … What do you know about Voldemort’s reasons for attacking your family and the Potters?”

“Nothing,” Mrs. Longbottom answered suspiciously.

Sirius looked to Harry and Neville. “Has Dumbledore told either of you anything?”

Neville shook his head and Harry mirrored the move. “I asked him at the end of first year but he told me I was too young to know.”

“Figures.” Sirius huffed. “There is a prophecy, but I don’t know it’s exact content. James wouldn’t tell me when they went into hiding and Dumbledore told me it’s none of my business. But Voldemort knows part of it and apparently it could have spoken about either of you.” He frowned. “Maybe even both of you. Voldemort saw a threat in you because of this prophecy and tried to eliminate that threat.”

“And he is still targeting me because of it?” Harry growled.

“It is just another reason to leave the country,” Mrs. Longbottom interjected. She sighed deeply. “Maybe you will be driven to someday come back here. Such magic is … If it is a real prophecy, there is no escaping fate, for either one involved. But if another confrontation with Voldemort is inevitable, then both of you need training you won’t or can’t get in Hogwarts or anywhere else in Britain.”

Harry huffed. “Why should we come back, if the people here will only want to kill us anyway?”

Mrs. Longbottom smiled. “I can understand your reluctance. But some things may not be yours to decide. Maybe we won’t come back, but Voldemort will eventually follow us.”

Neville frowned. “There is something you are not saying, Gran. What is it?”

Mrs. Longbottom sighed deeply. “It is very possible that you will be driven back here by your instincts. I have talked with a lot of Sentinel and Guide pairs in the years we have travelled and most of them felt driven to protect the country they had been born into. I don’t know how you will be affected by such instincts, but I don’t think we should dismiss the possibility.”

Harry really did not see how he would ever want to come back. He had dreamed about leaving England since sometime in second year when nearly everyone had shunned him just because he could speak with snakes. Even Ron had looked at him warily from time to time and only Neville and Hermione had never shown any kind of suspicion or fear of him. Until now he had thought to be stuck in England until he was seventeen.

But now, with the revelations of the last few minutes and everything that had happened in the last year, he was ready to leave as soon as possible, as long as Neville and Sirius would be with him. He had no qualms about leaving the rest of Great Britain to their fate. The only one he would maybe like to warn and to caution to leave too was Hermione. Harry had the address of her parents and could write her a letter, sending it per muggle post from somewhere outside of England.

“But is it even possible to just leave?” Neville asked. “Can we leave the country with Harry and Sirius without being stopped?”

Mrs. Longbottom nodded. “I have prepared for the three of us to leave with muggle transportation since you told me who your Sentinel was. I have muggle passports and papers listing me as the guardian of both of you.” She eyed Sirius. “It will take a few days to arrange a passport for you and you should change your appearances. Loose the long hair and the beard, maybe get fake glasses.”

Sirius shook his head slowly. “I’m not sure I should…”

“You are not staying here!” Harry interrupted him harshly. “Don’t even think about it!”

“If I come with you it will be harder to hide,” Sirius cautioned. “All the world thinks me a mass murderer. There exists an international warrant for me in the magical and the muggle world!”

“Nonsense.” Mrs. Longbottom shook her head. “I was very cross about the ministry never ordering an international warrant for you. I’m sorry, that I argued for it quite ardently a year ago, but you are lucky that in never happened. And with the things I learned today, it makes much more sense now.”

Sirius blinked dumbfounded. “But … Dumbledore said-”

“He also said he would get you help!” Harry reminded hotly. “And he has done nothing of that sort for the last year! - I don’t want to leave without you, Siri! You are all the family I have left!”

Sirius gave him a sad smile. “And I don’t want to leave you alone again, but … it will make things more complicated. - Maybe it would be easier if I come as Snuffles than to create a fake passport for me.”

“No.” Mrs. Longbottom shook her head. “It could be easier in the short term, but long term it will be much more convenient to have a second adult at hand than a dog. Here in England, I have the connections to get you a  _ real  _ passport with a  _ fake  _ name.”

Harry exhaled relieved as it seemed decided that Sirius would come with them. He had told Sirius he would kidnap him if he wouldn’t take the portkey with him, but that had been an empty threat mainly because he had no idea how to accomplish such a thing. He had already started to fear he would need to ask Neville’s grandmother to perform such a kidnapping for him.

Harry’s stomach growled and Neville said grinning, “I believe, you had promised us dinner, Gran. Maybe we can plan our escape while we eat!”

~*~*~*~*~*~

When Neville opened his eyes, he found himself in a blue jungle. He knew he was asleep as he remembered going to bed after a long diner with his grandmother, Harry and Sirius and after he had shown Harry the room next to his own. It was not the first time he had this dream, he had spent many nights in this jungle before he had come to Hogwarts.

“Nev?”

He turned to find Harry standing a few feet away, confusion written all over his face.

“Where are we? The last thing I remember is going to sleep!”

Neville smiled reassuringly. “We are asleep. But I think this isn’t exactly a dream, either. I’ve been here before.”

“I remember dreaming about this place before, too.” Harry nodded and frowned. “I thought I was … imagining it, so I had something nice, something to escape the Dursleys for a while. How are we sharing a dream?”

“It’s no dream,” Neville repeated. “I think this is the spirit plane. And it’s probably my fault that we are here, even so I have no idea how I did it. - We have met here before, haven’t we? The boy I used to meet here, that was you all along!”

“I thought I had created an imaginary friend because it was the only way I could have a friend.” Harry began smiling, even so his words broke Neville’s heart. “But when it wasn’t imaginary … then Ron wasn’t my first friend, because you were!”

Neville grinned. “And I don’t want to sound arrogant, but I really think I’m the better first friend!”

“It’s not arrogance, it’s the truth,” Harry replied softly. “You are the only person who has never turned their back on me.”

“But I have lied to you.” Neville swallowed hard. “I have kept this huge secret from you.”

“And you think I’m mad about it.”

“Aren’t you?” Neville asked sceptically.

“No. Not even a little bit.” Harry shook his head smiling. “I’ve not even for a moment thought that I should be mad about it. I’ve seen Fudge arrest Hagrid out of a whim. For thirteen years I had no idea that I had a godfather because he was kept in prison without a trial. I don’t doubt for a moment that the danger you described is real.”

Harry sat down in the blue grass and patted the place beside him with his hand, so Neville followed his friend’s action. “And you haven’t manipulated me in a friendship, you were a real friend for the whole time. That may be influenced by some instinctive acknowledgement of whatever it is we are to one another, but that’s at least something I can trust in. I know I can trust my instincts because they have saved my life over and over again.”

Neville averted his eyes. “I feel as if I have manipulated you.”

“You haven’t!” Harry insisted. “Ron has done it repeatedly to get something from me and I have ignored it because I valued his friendship more than I should have. But I have seen through his manipulations every single time. Hermione has manipulated me a few times, to get me to sit down for my homework mostly and it may be with good intentions, but it felt wrong none the less. But you have never asked me to do anything for you, you have never looked down on me for something or made fun of me, or made me explain something I didn’t want to talk about.”

Harry smiled warmly. “You were just there. Like this last week. You sat down by my side and just let me be, without letting me be alone and miserable or pressure me to interact with you. You only talked to me when I wanted to talk. And you protected me as good as you could. Do you know how long it’s been since anyone has protected me?”

Neville sighed. “That’s not a very high standard you are setting there.”

“It’s the only standard I know.” Harry shrugged.

Neville frowned but kept his opinion to himself. He would make it one of his goals to change that for Harry, to give him a more stable environment. The current plan was to find a place where they both could be trained in all of their abilities, including the magic that came with being a parselmouth for Harry. Hopefully, there would be other teenagers there, people who wouldn’t see the boy-who-lived in Harry, but just another normal teenaged boy trying to learn to control his magic and suffering through puberty and cheering for their favourite sports club.

“I was surprised how few questions you had about Sentinels and Guides,” Neville said instead. He had wondered about it the whole time he had prepared for bed. It was not even the first time that he had noticed how little Harry questioned the things happening around him and to him.

Harry looked down and started to play with the blue grass in front of him. “I … One of the first  _ lessons  _ my uncle taught me was to not ask any questions.”

“Your uncle isn’t here,” Neville said, barely able to contain his anger. He had not missed the strange emphasis Harry had put behind the word ‘lessons’.

Harry shrugged. “That’s true. But … the teachers in elementary weren’t very welcoming to my questions either. I just … learned to get the answers on my own or accept not getting them.”

Neville sighed and shook his head. “That’s not how it should work. I’ll never dismiss a question you have, and I’m sure the same is true for grandma and Sirius.” He paused frowning. “Have I ever brushed off a question from you?”

Harry smiled, shaking his head. “No, that’s another thing you are fairly unique in.”

“So, do you have questions?”

“A ton!” Harry laughed. “Let’s start with this place. You said something about a spirit plane.”

“It’s another plane of existence.” Neville cocked his head thoughtfully. “It’s a place Sentinels and Guides are connected to, but only Guides have the ability to go here, and sometimes they can bring their Sentinel if there is a need. Outside of our dreams, I have never been here before because the Guides who talked to me about it said that I was too young, that my magic hadn’t settled enough to reach for this place.”

“Obviously they were wrong,” Harry stated.

Neville shook his head. “I don’t think I would be able to control it, really. It’s only ever happened in my sleep and when I went to sleep today I did wish that I could have spent more time with you. And apparently, this is a place were Guides have sought guidance and counsel for a very long time.”

“We are all alone here, how could there be found guidance or council?”

“Only because we can’t see anyone or anything, doesn’t mean it’s not there,” Neville replied. “I know that our spirit animals live here. They are one source of guidance. But we could meet other Guides here, too. If I knew how to summon anyone. Which I don’t because everyone thought I couldn’t yet come here.”

“And what are spirit animals?”

Neville shrugged. “Every Sentinel and Guide is connected to a spirit animal. Some say every human is connected to one, but only we can see and interact with them. They are another form of guidance. They can visit us on our plane of existence, but their home is here. Have you ever seen an animal that no one else could see?”

“I don’t know.” Harry shook his head. “Before I came to Hogwarts, there were a lot of things I could see that others didn’t. Have you?”

“He is a little bit shy.” Neville could feel him near them, but he had not spotted him yet between the trees. “It’s a Eurasian lynx and the first time I saw him was actually shortly before I awoke. He was just a kitten back then and he is still not fully grown. I think he is growing with me.”

“Does he have a name?”

Neville felt himself blush. “Yeah. That’s … when I first met him, it felt like the greatest thing ever, so … I named him Merlin.”

Harry smiled. “That’s cute.”

Neville huffed. “Grandma is perpetually teasing me with my choice of name!”

“Can she see him, when he visits you?” Harry asked.

Neville nodded. “If he wants her to. But as I said, he is shy. I have seen the spirit animals of other Guides and Sentinels, but Grandma could only ever see them if they made themselves visible to her.”

“Where did you meet other Guides and Sentinels?”

“All over the world! Grandma and I travelled a lot before Hogwarts. She searched for places where I could be taught the control I would need for school. In the first one or two years after I had awoken, I was projecting my emotions all over the place. Everyone would have instantly known what I am. She took me mainly to Asia and Africa and South America because there Sentinels and Guides are still a very honoured and integral part of the magical communities.”

Harry sighed wistfully. “That sounds fantastic.”

“You’ll get to see all those places, too!” Neville promised.

Harry looked at him sceptically. “We are fleeing and not going on a holiday!”

“And no one here will even get the idea that you left the country, so we’ll be able to travel all we want.” Neville shook his head laughing. “Really, the isolationism of this country will work against them so much in this. For most of them, it is absolutely unimaginable to leave England even for a holiday!”

As Harry still looked very sceptically, Neville continued, “Didn’t you notice that Ron was kind of embarrassed about the weeks in Egypt, despite his proud and very loud tales about it? Such a thing is a once in a lifetime occurrence for most of the magical families here and not because of the money. That his older brothers both left England to build their life is something of a never-ending embarrassment for the whole family. Percy is especially unhappy about it. Most here are of the opinion that England is the cradle of magic, so why should they ever want to leave this great country?”

Harry snorted. “How pretentious! Especially as they seem to want to forget most of the magical history of this land!” He took a deep breath. “I wanted to leave England since that disaster of a duelling club in second year. But I have never even thought about where I would want to go, I just knew that I would get out of here as soon as possible.”

“So, you would have left before seventh year?” Neville asked.

Harry shrugged. “Probably right after. I mean, to have full wand rights we need to finish school, right? Speaking of, how will that work for us now?”

“I don’t even have a wand of my own,” Neville confessed. “That’s one reason why I used Dad’s. For most Sentinels and Guides it’s hard if not outright impossible to use a wand. There are other more traditional foci which we could use, but for a lot of things we won’t need anything of the sort.”

“It took really long for Ollivander to find a wand for me,” Harry remember wide-eyed. “I tried nearly every wand in his shop. Was that the reason?”

Neville nodded. “Probably. It’s a wonder that he even did find one for you.”

Harry grimaced. “And I never really … I hate the fact that it’s the brother wand to the one that killed my parents. But I didn’t dare to ask for another one because I thought they wouldn’t let me come to Hogwarts if I had no wand and it had already taken so long to even find that one.”

Neville frowned confused. “What’s a brother wand?”

“The core of my wand is a phoenix feather,” Harry explained. “And the same phoenix gave another feather at the same time. And that other feather is the core of Voldemort’s wand. Ollivander made them on the same day. - And it seems that it is not a good idea to use the brother wand of your opponent in a duel. Although, it did safe my life.”

“What happened?”

Neville had heard snippets of the events during the hour in which Harry and Cedric had been gone, but in most cases, he had interrupted Harry and whomever he had spoken to. For him it had been obvious that all the other students wanted was to find the cracks in Harry’s story that would unravel the lie and Neville had not been willing to let his friend suffer through those memories for that. But he had never heard anything about the wands.

He was horrified to hear of the forced duel but curious about the wands connecting in the way they had. It had to have been horrible for Harry to see the ghost of those people Voldemort had killed, especially his parents.

“I’m sorry you had to go through that alone,” Neville said after Harry had stopped talking. “I wish I had been there every time you got in these situations in the last four years!”

“It would have just served to get you hurt, too, as it happened to Ron and Hermione all the time.” Harry shook his head. “I’m glad you weren’t there. I’m not sure…” He blinked in confusion. “Just to think about you getting hurt makes me furious.”

Neville took a deep breath. “Sentinels are the protectors of the Tribe. But the person for whom they would do anything to protect is their Guide. Sentinels and Guides can live alone, without their partner, but apparently, that is a really hard life. We provide balance for each other, magically as well as in our other abilities. Therefore we are both driven to protect each other.”

“You said we come in pairs,” Harry said. “What does that mean? How is it determined which Guide belongs to which Sentinel? What if there is one but not the other?”

“I don’t really know how it works,” Neville had to confess. “But they are born together, inside of six months. So it’s probably determined by Magic before either of them is born because both already exist at that time, right? The only case in which there is only one of them is if the other is killed.”

“So, when we were born it had already been settled that we would be…” Harry blushed. “What does pair even mean in that case?”

Neville smiled reassuringly. “It will mean whatever we want it to mean. Generally, we will be able to use our abilities better if we work together. We’ll be able to perform more powerful magic together, you’ll be able to use your senses more precise with my help, and the same is true for my empathic abilities. But we’ll also train to use all that on our own, so we’ll be able to function without each other. But aside from that, what we make out of our relationship will be our decision.”

He had wished for his Sentinel to be his best friend ever since he had known there was a Sentinel for him somewhere. In the last months, his wishes and dreams had changed in that regard, and he had found himself thinking about the possibilities of Harry becoming more than just a friend, but he had tried not to think too much about it.

“Even … I mean… Is there…” Harry closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “I would’ve loved to go to the Yule Ball with you instead of a girl!” The words were so rushed, that Harry nearly stumbled more than once over the syllables.

Neville blinked dumbfounded. “Really?”

Harry shrugged, his eyes still closed and biting his lip.

“I thought you had a crush on Cho! Or Ginny, or both.”

Harry snorted and crossed his arms in front of his chest. “No, I just … I really don’t like any girls. Is this a bad thing, too, in the magical world?” Finally, he opened his eyes, but he looked to the side, his eyes searching for something between the trees. “It’s not really a good thing in the muggle world. There has changed a lot in the last ten years or so, but my uncle is really angry about that. … He would kill me if he knew…”

“You will never see this man again!” Neville interrupted darkly. “And no, it’s not a bad thing to like other boys, or for a girl to like other girls.”

“Wow.” Harry huffed. “There actually is a thing the magical world is not discriminating against?”

Neville could not help but laugh. “I guess. It would probably be too exhausting to put another thing on the list that the general public hates, don’t you think?”

Harry snickered. “That has to be the reason!”

“I would have loved that, too, you know,” Neville said softy. “But you were chasing Cho and I tried to keep a low profile. And then you were jealous of me because I had gone with Ginny to the ball.”

Harry shook his head. “I wasn’t jealous of you. I … just didn’t correct Ron in his assumption, because … I thought it was better if everyone thought I liked girls. I was … really jealous of her, not you.”

“I only asked Ginny because she wouldn’t have been able to go otherwise,” Neville explained. “And I try … She is not well, you know? There is something wrong with her since what happened in second year. I feel that I have the abilities to help her just not the right training. And even if I had, I couldn’t risk it, but … I tried to help in any way I could, but I don’t think it was very successful. But that was the only reason I asked her. Otherwise, I would have gone alone. … And maybe pined after you, and been jealous of Pavarti more than I already was.”

Harry finally looked at him again, smiling shyly. “So, maybe we could be more than friends?”

“I would like that.” Neville returned the smile, feeling warm and content. “I would like to see what the future holds for us. But let’s just be … patient. I don’t think I’m ready for anything…” He shrugged and felt himself blush.

“Yeah, me neither.” Harry chuckled nervously. But then he fell silent, staring at a point slightly beside Neville. “Oh!”

Neville turned and saw Merlin sitting on a fallen tree trunk, eyeing them with a cocked head. “Have you finished hiding, then?”

Merlin yawned before he stood up and walked to them. He rubbed his head against Neville’s knee for a moment, and then turned to Harry regarding him with a long look and sniffing at the outstretched hand. At the end he accepted to be crawled, slumping down between the two boys, rolling onto his back purring.

“So, this is Merlin,” Neville introduced belatedly.

“He is beautiful!”

Merlin stretched his whole body and Neville got the feeling that the lynx was preening. “When I have seen him on our plane of existence, he has never been so solid.”

“Maybe it’s because we are in his home now,” Harry suggested. “Tell me more about what we are. There is so much I still don’t know, I have no idea where to even start with my questions.”

Neville did. In the end, they spent the whole night on the spirit plane, talking about everything and nothing, petting Merlin and relishing in their time alone. When his grandmother woke him up in the morning, Neville felt more relaxed and refreshed than he had in many, many years.

~*~*~*~*~*~

Five days went by in which they prepared and waited, mainly to cover their tracks. Harry’s disappearance would hopefully not be discovered until sometime after his birthday when he should have gone to the Weasleys. But as soon as anyone asked the Dursleys they would discover that he had vanished on the same day that he had come back from Hogwarts.

Augusta and Neville would officially leave the country for the holidays on the seventh day of the summer break and just not come back, while Sirius’ disappearance would probably be noticed a few days later when he didn’t come back from the mission Dumbledore had sent him on and which he had never even started, although no one would be able to confirm that and therefore to determine the exact time of his disappearance would be impossible. Thus they would hopefully not be connected by anyone who would search for any of them.

Neville and Harry were only partly involved in the planning of their journey. Harry could give a little bit insight in ways that muggles travelled and Neville expressed his thoughts about the places he had previously visited with his grandmother and where they could maybe settle down. Most of the time the boys spent roaming the property, often accompanied by Merlin, or browsing the library and making a list of the things they both wanted to explore and to learn. And every night they would meet in the spirit plane, exploring the blue jungle and all of Harry’s questions, most of which he did not seem able to articulate during the day.

On the sixth day after he had come home from Hogwarts, Neville and his grandmother went to Diagon Alley to finalize their official travel plans, which would put them in France and which they would of course not follow. Most of the things they would do on this day would be a subterfuge to throw anyone off their trail who would try to find them after the summer.

But first, the day started with a small adventure for Neville. As much as he had travelled with his grandmother, they had never spent a lot of time in the muggle world, just enough that he could get by without standing out from the crowd. When Harry had asked about sending Hermione a letter via muggle post, Neville had learned for the first time how muggle post actually worked. It did seem very complex to him, with bringing the letter to a post office, from which it would be sent to Hermione’s home address and not the place she was actually staying at the moment while she was travelling with her parents. But it was a good thing that the letter would stay hidden until Hermione came back from her holidays three weeks from now.

Augusta had apparated with him to Cardiff to bring Harry’s letter to a post office, which was another deception because apparently, some stamp on the letter could reveal to Hermione from where it had been sent. And while Harry had insisted on not leaving without giving Hermione a warning and some kind of explanation, no one wanted to leave behind a hint of where they had gone, so his plan to send a letter from somewhere outside of Great Britain had been vetoed by the adults.

From Cardiff, they went directly to London. Diagon Alley was busy but not as busy as it would be later in the summer. Augusta kept Neville close by, something she hadn’t done outside of England for years. He knew it was her fear of him being exposed, but for everyone else, it seemed as if she was not trusting her nearly fifteen year old grandson on his own which played nicely into their little charade.

Neville stopped abruptly in his track when they passed a newspaper stand and stared open-mouthed at the front page of the Daily Prophet. They had not gotten the paper for four days now, because Augusta had already cancelled her subscription for the whole summer as usual because it was not delivered outside of England and even without the recent events they would have spent most of the summer travelling.

Neville plugged an exemplar of the paper from the stand and held it up for his grandmother.  _ ‘Potter’s strive for unwarranted glory – Investigation in Cedric Diggory’s murder ongoing’  _ was the headline and beneath it was a picture printed that showed how Cedric and Harry appeared in a heap on the stage beside the maze.

“Is that the reason you didn’t let me see the paper for the last couple of days?” It was second nature to play up their strained relationship in public whenever possible.

Augusta looked at the headline with an unmoving face. “You are way too excitable as you are just demonstrating. There really is no reason for such theatrics!”

“They are implying that Harry killed Cedric!” Neville said agitated.

That was nothing new, but he would bet all he had that it was no coincidence that this information had only been released after Harry would officially be out of contact from the wizarding world for several weeks. If he would spend his holidays like he normally did then he would not learn of these very public accusations for five or six weeks and the ministry would have all that time to further their smear campaign.

“There is nothing to imply there, boy!” A woman he had never seen before had stopped beside them, sneering down her nose at him. “From the moment this imposter tricked his way into the tournament it was clear that it wouldn’t take a good end!”

Neville snorted. “Right, because it is so easy to believe that someone with only three years of magical education could circumvent the age line of the headmaster and trick an ancient magical artefact into choosing a fourth champion for a tournament with only three participants!”

“It was just published yesterday that Potter used the name of a faked fourth school to be chosen as a champion,” the woman said condescendingly. “And that headmaster of yours probably helped him cross the age line.”

Neville could not hold back his laugh. “That’s utter bullshit!” He knew it was exactly what Crouch Jr. had said to Harry he had done, and that there was no way Fudge could disclose the involvement of that Death Eater after he had killed him. This would become an utter disaster, and it was good that they would not be here for the fallout.

“Language, young man!” his grandmother admonished. “Even so I have to agree with your sentiment. There are several big holes in this fairytale the ministry is spinning. Bagman has still not disclosed what this last task should have been that he talked about after those two boys vanished out of the maze. They probably have no idea where they were for this hour, otherwise, they would have disclosed their location already.”

The woman huffed. “Who knows were Potter brought them when he was confronted with having to share the victory!”

Neville looked around them where several other people had gathered and all were nodding. “How would Harry have accomplished it to change the destination of the portkey? We just finished our fourth year, we don’t even know how to create one! And everyone was watching! And it was Harry’s idea to share in the first place! Cedric wanted him to take the cup on his own because Harry had saved him two times in the maze! If Harry had just wanted to win then he had every chance to get that without killing anyone! And everyone who was there at the last task has witnessed this conversation!”

“Who knows if what you saw was actually happening!” a man in the crowd muttered.

Neville frowned. “What’s that supposed to mean? You think hundreds of people hallucinated that?”

“Potter could have manipulated the recording charms,” another woman said. “Surely he is powerful enough! He managed to survive the killing curse somehow as an infant. And I heard a rumour he is a parselmouth. That sort of people is not to be trusted!”

“And he is seer, too, to know he needed such, yes?” Neville snapped. “You are insane!”

“Come along, Neville,” Augusta interrupted before anyone could say any more. “You have wasted enough time with this nonsense. You can’t force others to think for themselves if they don’t want to.”

Neville huffed. “Can I take one?” he asked holding up the paper.

August gave a long-suffering sigh. “If you must. But I don’t want to hear any more theatrics today!”

“Yes, Gran,” Neville muttered while paying.

“It’s a good thing we’ll spend the rest of the summer abroad.” Augusta sneered at the crowd. “You really don’t need this kind of excitement all the time.”

They were regarded with mistrustful looks all the way to Gringotts. Neville was sure they would be the main topic of the gossip in the alley for at least two days, for his defence of Harry as well as for Augusta declaration to spend the summer abroad. All their other travels had been done in secret, but this time it would cover for their disappearance. Most people would just shrug off their not coming back and mutter something about it being a bad idea to leave England in any way.

As soon as they stepped into the office of their account manager, they dropped their act. There was no need to agitate the dverger with any kind of subterfuge and to undermine Nevilles future position as the heir of his grandfather with them. The dverger could not care less for the political and social games of humans and they did not tend to talk with humans outside of the business they had to conduct with them. Neville suspected that the main reason for that was that humans, in general, were never very polite to them.

It was a long and tedious business that kept them inside the bank for hours. Besides their own affairs of closing down their properties in Great Britain, making sure his great-uncle would not be able to get his hands on anything of the Longbottom fortune he had no right to in their absence and preparing the access to their gold from anywhere in the world, they had delivered a sealed letter each from Harry and Sirius with similar instructions for their accounts and had brought the backpack with Harry’s trunk in it, so the dverger could check everything in it for monitoring magic in a secure room.

Harry had been agitated when Neville had asked him to let his trunk in the backpack because it nullified any kind of such magic. Neville knew his friend had not even thought about the possibility that Dumbledore or someone else would use the few things he could call his own to monitor him. He would be furious later in the day when Augusta and Neville would have to show him the list of charms which the dverger had to purify off his possessions.

It was nearly past lunchtime when Neville and his grandmother finally left the bank. They made their way to a high-end restaurant on the edge of the ally where they were shown into a private room, and where no one even wondered about a customer placing security and anti-listening wards over the room after they had given their orders.

“Tell me how Harry is fairing,” Augusta asked as soon as they were sure to be not be overheard. “He is very quiet. I had expected a lot more questions from him, not that he would just go with the flow, so to speak.”

Neville sighed. “He is … Remember how I suspected that his relatives were neglecting him? I think it was a lot more than that. Harry told me recently that the first thing his uncle taught him was to not ask questions. And I think it’s hard for him to overcome that.”

“And with ‘taught’ you mean that Harry was hit by his uncle?” Augusta asked concerned.

Neville shrugged. “He hasn’t admitted that outright, but when … We talked about the Yule ball and that he only went with a girl because he thought it was better if everyone believed that he actually liked girls, which he doesn’t. He said his uncle would kill him if he knew and I don’t think that was meant hyperbolic in any way.”

“It’s a good thing Harry will never go back to those people again!”

“Yes,” Neville muttered darkly. “If I ever should meet this man, I can assure you I won’t stay civilised.”

“I would help you cover your tracks,” Augusta promised.

“When we are sleeping, we are meeting in Merlin’s place,” Neville related. “It’s happened every night since he is staying with us. I think it’s easier there for him to let go. We have covered a lot of questions in the nights.”

Augusta frowned. “You both need your sleep!”

“I think it’s still working as sleep,” Neville replied. “I don’t feel tired, in fact, I feel much more recovered in the morning than in a long time.”

“That’s something we’ll have to ask others about,” Augusta decided.

“We can’t control it anyway.” Neville shrugged. “I have no idea how we end up there every night, really!”

“And is Harry stable? Or does he still have problems?” Augusta asked.

“He’s alright,” Neville assured, as careful as is grandmother not to talk about senses or to use the words Guide or Sentinel or spirit plane. Even in a place like this, where privacy was guaranteed, they were not sure if those words would not trigger any alarms. “I think it helps that we spent so much time together.”

Their meals appeared before them and for a few minutes, they fell silent. It was good food and Neville savoured the time alone with his grandmother. As much as he loved that Harry and even Sirius were with them now, he missed the time alone with her.

“I think I have to fully agree with Harry,” Neville said eventually. “It’s not worth it to come back here. The ministry is spreading utter rubbish and everyone is just believing it.”

Augusta sighed. “There seems to be a prophecy in play. I can’t promise you that you’ll never have to come back here.”

“Did you see the part where they interviewed Cedric’s parents?” Neville asked outraged.

“No.” Augusta shook her head.

Neville drew the paper out of his bag and searched for the right paragraph, to read it aloud.

_ After a week-long retreat from the public to morn their son and prepare his funeral, Mr. and Mrs. Diggory were able to give a short statement to our esteemed newspaper. When asked about the Boy-Who-Lived, Mr. Diggory told us: _

“ _ He came to us to apologize on the same evening [of the third task,  _ editor’s note _ ]. He wanted to give us the winning as some kind of compensation. At first, it seemed like a nice gesture, you know? But I was not able to register anything else that happened this evening. I just … Later I thought about it, about the things he said, and it was so ugly! How can he think that a thousand gallons would in any way make up for losing my son? My only child?” _

_ We all know that Potter grew up without his parents, inheriting a small fortune before he was even able to walk. We have to ask ourself how damaged such a childhood left this young man if he thinks a handful of gold could give any kind of comfort for loosing a loved one. And we have to ask – every parent of a child in Hogwarts should demand an answer to the question – how we can protect the other students from his apparent callousness! _

“Can you believe this?” Neville raged. “That’s not what happened! Yes, he wanted to give them the gold, but because he thought it was Cedric’s anyway!”

“I already see how this will end.” Augusta sighed. “This investigation they are supposedly conducting will come to the conclusion that Harry killed young Cedric. And his disappearance will be seen as a confession.”

“Is there nothing we can do?” Neville asked.

Augusta shook her head. “Not here, not at the moment, not without drawing too much attention to Harry or us. But if you don’t plan to come back here, why should we do anything?”

“And if we really have to come back someday?” Neville asked. “How can he ever step foot back in this country with such an accusation hanging over his head?”

“Let that be the problem of us adults,” Augusta asked him softly. “You have both a lot on your plate already. Those problems won’t follow us immediately and we’ll find time to make plans for it later. These accusations against Harry are not the only juridical mishap we need to clear up.”

Neville snorted. “Mishap is a very nice euphemism!”

“Concentrate on yourself and your relationship to Harry for the moment. You both need a lot of training and have still a lot to learn. For everything else our other guest and I will be responsible, at least for the next two years and even longer if you’ll let us!”

~*~*~*~*~*~

Harry looked back to the coast of Newcastle a little bit wistful while the ferry left the port. The first time in his life he felt hopeful and excited about the adventure that lay ahead of him, and it would be a good adventure this time of that he was sure. And yet, he also felt sorrow about leaving his home, even though neither the muggle nor the magical part of Great Britain had ever been very welcoming of him.

The worst part of starting their journey had been to say good bye to Hedwig, who he had sent to Gringotts shortly before they had they had left the home of Neville and his grandmother. She was to recognizable to travel with them, but as soon as they would have reached their destination they would send word to the bank to transport her to wherever they would be at that point.

It was early evening and Mrs. Longbottom and Sirius had apparated them to Newcastle only three hours ago which had given them just enough time to find the right ferry and board it. It was a big ship, one that transported cars and lories in its belly and had lots of cabins for passengers. They would spend the whole night here, having dinner and breakfast on the ship before they would leave the ferry in Amsterdam around ten on the next morning.

They had booked two adjourning cabins, one for Mrs. Longbottom and Neville and one for Sirius and Harry. They were very plain, without a window, a bunk bed in each, a small sofa and bathroom with only a toilet and a small shower. Of course, there were much more luxurious cabins available and they would have had the money to book two of them, but even in the muggle world, they wanted to stay unobtrusive. Sirius had laughed and said to even have a cot was more luxury than he had had for most of the last fifteen years, but no one else had wanted to laugh with him about that, although Harry had thought to himself that it was true for him, too.

They had only taken a short time to inspect their cabins, before searching for the way to the deck. There were a lot of people on the ferry, but not many had come up to witness their departure from the port. Neville and Harry stood side by side at the rear of the ship, both watching silently until they had left the harbour and most of the other passengers started to go back inside, and even Sirius and Mrs. Longbottom left them alone, going in search for a nice table in the restaurant.

“I have wished for so long to leave. I wouldn’t have thought it would hurt so much,” Neville muttered.

Harry sighed. “It’s still our home and we are not leaving because we want to, but because we have to. It feels like … we are giving up, we are being defeated by them.”

Neville pressed his shoulder against Harry’s. “We’ll find another place we can call home. Somewhere without all those expectations on us.”

“That sounds nice.” Harry smiled and closed his fingers around Nevilles’s hand. “Last night you said something of a bond between … our kind.” They were still in British territory and in the last days, Harry had learned to understand Neville’s precaution. Until they departed the ferry in Amsterdam they needed to be careful about the use of certain words. “What does that mean exactly?”

Neville shrugged. “I’m not sure. That’s another thing the others have deemed me too young to discuss.”

“I hate when adults do that!” Harry groused.

Neville grinned. “I hope we’ll grow out of this phase soon! - What I do know is that it is some kind of connection that has been there between us from the beginning. It’ll grow over time and in which direction it will grow is influenced by the kind of relationship we’ll build. It’s magical, but also … It’s part of the energy that connects us to Merlin’s place.”

Harry frowned. “Are all pairs of our kind … romantically involved?”

“No,” Neville answered and Harry sighed in relief.

It felt weird to think that the things he had started to feel for Neville during the last months were in some kind predetermined as if it were really not his own feelings but something put into him. It should be something that was all his without any influence from the outside force.

“I’ve met pairs in many kinds of relationships,” Neville continued. “They are all friends at least, and some of them are only friends, others are romantic and sexual partners and some even have a three-way relationship of some kind with another person. - As I have said, it is our decision where we’ll take our relationship!”

“That’s really good!” Harry frowned. “But I don’t think I want there to be a third-person ever!”

Neville laughed. “Yeah, agreed! I was really jealous of Cho and Pavarti!”

“I chose Cho because I knew she was in love with Cedric and therefore the most likely to reject my overtures,” Harry confessed impishly. “I hated it that I couldn’t get away with not having a date. Especially as so many would have accepted my invitation only because of my name because they would have loved to brag about it and to use it to further themselves.”

Neville scoffed. “Would have done them not a lot of good in the situation as it is now!”

“But no one knew that before Yule.” Harry shrugged. “It doesn’t matter now anyway. Chances are we won’t see any of them ever again. And most I don’t want to see again.”

He would miss Hermione, of that he was sure. But she would probably be the only one he would be sad about not seeing again, and maybe there would be a chance to make contact with her again later. He had written her that he was sorry about vanishing without taking her with him, but that he could not stay. That he needed to find a place where he could learn and grow without being thrown through the wringer every year. He had written her that he would always be her friend and maybe in a few years, when no one could legally control him any more, he would contact her again and that he wished to reconcile with her as soon as possible.

He would miss the Weasleys, too, but he was really not sad to let them go. Ron had shown his true colours this year, not for the first time of course, but it was the first time that Harry could not just brush it of. To leave also solved Harry’s problem of how he could move on from that break in their friendship. Mrs. Weasley may mean good, but she could be so overbearing, Ginny’s obsession with him had been scary from the start, and even so he had given the twins the gold from the tournament for their business plans, he was just as happy to witness their progress from as far away as possible.

“I hope grandma is wrong,” Neville said quietly. “I don’t want to go back. I don’t see how it will ever be not a fight for survival if we have to go back.”

“They are accusing me of murder, and we have seen with Sirius that they are capable of condemning someone without a trial. I’m not going back into a country that’s making me into a fugitive because of the ambition of one man.”

“Grandma asked us to let them handle it and not worry about it”, Neville reminded. “And I’m willing to do just that. I’m happy to not worry for a while and just concentrate on us.”

“Another thing I’ll need to get used to,” Harry muttered.

Neville squeezed his hand. “I’ll distract you from worrying about things we can let the adults handle!”

Harry laughed. “Yeah, that’s a good plan!” He let his gaze wander over the coastline that grew smaller with every minute. It would not be long until all of it would vanish behind the horizon and he felt light-hearted about it. He was happy to stand here with Neville and to know that Sirius was with them.

A movement at the edge of his vision caught his attention and his eyes grew wide as he saw the long, slim body of a white dragon float over the foam the ferry left in its wake. It looked like one of the creatures he had seen in muggle drawings of Asian dragons. It had no wings, and only its belly was covered in scales while the rest of its body was covered with white fur and a thin fiery red mane adorned its spine from its head to its tail.

Harry nudged his friend with his shoulder. “See there!”

“Wow!” Neville leaned forward to get a better look. “I have never seen or heard of such a dragon!”

“What’s he doing here?” Harry asked awed.

Neville turned his head to him. “I think it … he is yours.”

Harry frowned. “What do you…” - He paused when the dragon started to rise and flew in their direction. - “…mean?”

“I think he is like Merlin,” Neville muttered.

Harry wanted to protest, but then the dragon stopped only a few feet away from them on the other side of the railing and Harry met his eyes and just knew that Neville was right.

“You are magnificent,” Harry whispered.

“That he is,” Neville agreed softly.

The dragon purred, flew over the railing and wrapped himself around both of them, in the end pressing his forehead against Harry’s chest. The head was so big, that his nose nudged against Harry’s knees at the same time and the horns rubbed against his face.

“And huge!” Neville continued laughing. “And if he is like Merlin, he is not even fully grown yet!”

Harry carefully petted the mane in the dragon’s neck. “He is twenty feet long at least!”

“He is a good fit for you”, Neville said. “You’ll need to think of a name for him.”

“Falkor,” Harry answered without having to think about it. The dragon rubbed his head against him and Harry took that as agreement.

“Okay.” Neville blinked dumbfounded.

Harry snickered. “It’s from a muggle book I read in elementary.” It had taken him months to get through the whole book because he had only been able to read it while he had been hiding in the school library in the breaks between lessons, but it had stuck with him. “It’s called ‘ _ The Neverending Story’ _ . One of the companions of the main characters is a luckdragon called Falkor. He had white fur, too, and had a long body and had no wings, so it fits.”

Neville raised his hand and hesitatingly began to scratch Falkor behind his ear. “He’ll not be able to visit us inside a lot. But I’m sure we’ll see him tonight. Maybe we can fly on him over the jungle.”

“That would be so cool!”, Harry exclaimed.

He had dreamed about riding the back of the luckdragon as Atreyu had done in the book. And maybe it had not even been a dream as such, but an encounter with his own Falkor like the dreams of the blue jungle and his imaginary friend had actually been no dreams.

Smiling Harry buried his face in Falkor’s fur and pressed himself against Neville as much as he could. At this moment he was surrounded by everything he had ever dreamed of. It didn’t matter what the future would throw at him any more, because at this moment he was absolutely certain that he would never again have to face anything alone as Falkor and Neville would stand with him, come what may.

** The End **

  


  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m sad because they changed Falkor’s name in the English translations, but I can see how ‘Fuchur’ would be awkwardly pronounced in English… *sigh*


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